My dad died this morning. I was at home in California when I found out he died. My mom and dad recently retired, sold their house and bought an RV and have been traveling around the country enjoying retirement. They were on their way back to California and we're in Utah and he suffered a unexpected major catastrophic medical emergency this morning and passed away just a few short hours later.
Knowing my mom was alone in a town she had never been to before and knows absolutely nothing about, I got on the first flight I could to get to her. During my travel up here, she was able to talk to someone at a "funeral home" the hospital told her to go to and start making arrangements.
I got to her and we had dinner and are just now settling down for the night. My plan is to get everything taken care of here then drive the RV back to my house in California (she can't drive it.. isn't properly licensed and is scared to drive it.. I'm properly licensed for it and have no problem driving it).
But, I don't know what to do. She doesn't know what to do. And to make everything worse, everything was in his name. Everything. Bank accounts, credit cards, retirement accounts, everything. She has $200 cash and can't access any of the money in their bank because #1: the credit union doesn't have any branches out here and #2: she doesn't know any login information or pin #'s or anything to access the money.
She was told a lot of stuff by the hospital and the funeral home, but I wasn't there and don't know what was said. She doesn't even remember what day it is or what's going on because she's completely in shock that this has even happened.
Thankfully they do have a will in place. I don't know the exact details of it, but I know she contacted the lawyer and has "the ball rolling on that". The "funeral home" she spoke to has the death certificate "being typed up and sent to the hospital for a signature". Other than that, I have no clue how to get her money out of their check account. I have no clue on where to point her on what to do... I've never been through this at all and it was so unexpected that I don't even know where to start.
Any advice?
Submitted August 17, 2021 at 11:47PM by JRD761 https://ift.tt/3yWBi8R
